Done and done

My event has been over for nearly a week now and I’m still not quite able to sift through the FB posts and tags…it’s so much these days as everyone feels obligated to write long thank you posts after every event…but the TL/DR version is, the event went on, it was great, and was everything I had hoped for. 

While I went in expecting a bit of a mess, it actually wasn’t - for the most part, the competitors were on their game; nobody got injured; the contests were not a mess of old sign ups from 2020 - pretty much everyone who signed up did actually compete; there were a few flight delays but everyone made it in time; nobody canceled due to covid; vaccine requirements became a non-issue as we looked the other way on boosters and no unvaccinated people showed up demanding entrance; maybe 10% of people wore masks, almost no one consistently, and yet here we are the Friday after and not one of the people in my circles who hadn’t caught it yet have tested positive, and only one guy mentioned he did on FB and he didn’t even say he’d been at the event. How is this possible? I’m still holding my breath a bit for any positives coming in over the weekend…but at this point, if you’re first having symptoms a full week after the event, odds are you caught it somewhere else during the week. I think I was correct in that a large percentage of people at the event had decent immunity from recent infections or boosters, so the odds of covid circling enough to cause a massive outbreak were slim to none. I’m just glad my close friends, all of whom are over 50, so far are negative. I would feel really guilty if any of them got very sick since they were there to support me personally. But they also were the more vigilant mask wearers, so there you go. 

The event had exactly the joyous reunion feel I had wanted for last year and never got. I doubt we’ll be able to replicate the positive feelings and joy we had this year, since (hopefully) we won’t have another time when we’ve been shut down for years again anytime soon. I really have no complaints on how things went. On our end, smooth as silk.

On the hotel’s end, not so much. I absolutely hated our combative, defensive new contact person, as did all of my staff, and am going to ask for her to be removed from our account if I can ever get her superior to have a chat with me about that and all the extra charges they’re threatening this year. The contact person stressed me out so bad that by Saturday morning I made the decision that for my mental health I need to just not talk to her anymore about anything. There were multiple pipe leaks from the ceiling throughout the weekend - a massive one the day we were due to arrive right where our merchandise table was supposed to go, one in our storage room thankfully not on any of our stuff, and one collected in garbage cans outside our vendor room for the entire weekend. I get the feeling the hotel itself is really falling apart, which worries me. The hotel’s computer system was down all day Friday so no one could check into their rooms, the bars’ credit card systems were down so no one could buy a drink (and these bars are one of the extra charges I’m being threatened with), they shut down the bathroom for cleaning right in the middle of one of our main dances for an hour one night, they turned off the AC to fix a leak early in the morning and then never turned it back on, etc etc. It’s funny how we as this tiny operation can come back after two years with nary a hitch and yet this giant corporation has so many hiccups. All of this will be discussed when this meeting ever happens. 

This week has been about recovering and paying people - despite being surprised with a sound and flooring bill that was nearly double what I was originally quoted, which was a rude awakening Monday night - it actually looks like I might just be ok financially. I don’t know for sure yet - the hotel bill is a massive wild card. But I heard from the California grant today, asking for some more paperwork from me; it’s the first communication I’ve had since they told me I was ineligible back in April or whenever that was. I feel like that grant could be imminent, finally. If that happens and the hotel bill isn’t more than $20,000 I could be ok. I just returned my EIDL loan finally - and much to my horror discovered I owe an additional $12,000 in interest. So it cost me $12,000 to have that loan sit there. Sigh. I wish I’d just returned it when I got the big federal grant, but I had no way of predicting all this back then. Oh well, lesson learned. That’ll set me back a bit but it’s not catastrophic. 

Having the boys at the event was actually somewhat enjoyable - the H had them watch the more entertaining contests, and I sincerely felt like they were interested in all this. They’re still humming some of the songs. A highlight for me was sitting with Bobby on stage and talking about the music and just enjoying the moment. It’s funny to think of these kids finally getting to see what I do for a living and really get it; that all this time during the shut down, this is what I’ve been talking about. It’s funny to see myself through their eyes. I don’t know what, if any, role this event will have in their lives going forward. But it’s good to know from now on they can be there with us and at least get a taste of the thing I’ve devoted my life to.